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Spicy BBQ Sauce Wing Throwdown

I’ve been on a chicken wing kick lately. Actually, it’s been a craving induced by a demand from my wife for more space in the pantry. When I did this last week, it was for mustard-based sauces. And with Brian and Marilyn asking me to do a guest blog for them, I thought it would be sort of appropriate to do a chicken wing throwdown with spicy BBQ sauces. So without further delay, here are the sauces for this week’s chicken wing throwdown:

The Method to My Madness

In a matter similar to the last chicken wing throwdown, I used Tyson wings purchased at Sam’s Club and lightly seasoned them with a 50/50 blend of Draper’s AP Rub and Moo’d Enhancer. However, rather than cooking them in the smoker and then finishing them on the grill, I cooked the wings directly on the Weber OTG Kettle Grill using Kingsford charcoal and a single Red Oak Mojobrick Bar-B-Qube. Cook time was approximately 15-20 minutes (I wasn’t tracking the time all that close).

So now on to the sauces…

Grumpy’s Private Reserve Black Label

Grumpy’s BBQ Sauce is based out of Thornton, CO (just north of Denver). Their entire line of sauces have been garnering awards since 2005, including placement in the prestigious Scovie awards. The Black Label sauce is a classic tomato-based sauce with habanero and cayenne peppers providing the heat.

Sweet with a touch of bitterness; medium heat level that lingered for a bit

Sweet with a little tang; very natural flavor; not as much heat, but still present

Angry Nephew’s BBQ Sauce

This BBQ sauce comes to us from Garner, NC (a suburb of Raleigh). Angry Nephew’s has been featured in Country Living magazine as one of their top BBQ sauces in the country. This sauce incorporates ghost chili peppers to add that extra punch.

Retained balanced flavors; heat level started out low and gradually grew to a medium lingering heat

Hoosier Daddy Ghost Roast Barbecue Sauce

Based out of Dyer, IN, Hoosier Daddy Barbecue Sauce is putting Indiana on the BBQ sauce map by offering a unique buttery sweet flavor. Ghost Roast markets itself as a “flame throwing hot barbecue sauce that can wake the dead and make you howl”.

The Shed Spicy Orange Sunset Sauce

Located on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, The Shed has been providing BBQ goodness to people since 2001. They have received wide acclaim in numerous media outlets, and their sauces have done well in various BBQ sauce competitions. Their Spicy Orange Sunset Sauce offers one of the more unique flavor profiles out on the market today.

Sweetness prevails; citrus orange is not as prevalent; very nice flavors

Conclusions

So what do I recommend? It really depends on what you’re looking for. Hoosier Daddy Ghost Roast packs some serious heat – it may be too hot for a majority of people out there. It is also the only sauce that concentrates solely on sweet flavor profiles. The other three sauces are a toss-up. Any of them will work very nicely. The Spicy Orange Sunset Sauce offers the most unique flavor profile out there with the addition of the citrus orange flavors… this one will work great on poultry!